Electricity rates & appliance costs in California

Why electricity costs 33.61¢/kWh in California

Cooling demand peaks in the inland summer, heating in the Sierra and coast; solar supply changes the evening price shape.

The most complex retail market in the country — choice of up to 30 providers, with large differences between plans.

At 33.61¢/kWh, California sits far above the 18.3¢ U.S. average. That works out to $336.10 for every 1,000 kWh used — so a 1,500 W space heater costs $0.50 an hour to run, and a family heating with electric resistance instead of gas feels that difference in every winter month.

How California compares with neighbouring states

California ranks 2nd of 51 jurisdictions by residential price, from Hawaii at 48.00¢ down to Louisiana at 12.72¢ — a spread of about 3.8× across the country. Identical appliance habits can therefore cost several times more in one state than another.

Across Pacific Contiguous — the regional grouping the EIA itself uses for comparison — the average rate including California is 21.43¢/kWh, so California pays $12.18 more per kWh than that regional average. On a 1,500 W space heater running 6 hours a day, that gap alone is about $3,337.32 a month.

• Washington14.7¢
• Oregon16.0¢

What California households actually pay

A typical U.S. household uses around 30 kWh a day, about 900 kWh a month. At 33.61¢/kWh that is roughly $302 a month in electricity, or $3,630 a year. That is about $138 more per month than the same usage at the national average — a recurring bill difference, not a rounding detail.

Because the rate is a per-kWh price, the fastest savings come from the biggest loads: cutting a 1,500 W space heater from 6 hours a day to 3 saves about $46 a month in California. That is why the calculators here use your state rather than a national guess.

Reading your California utility bill

The EIA figure is a state average across utilities, not your tariff. Your bill shows your exact "price to compare" in ¢/kWh plus fixed customer charges, and sometimes tiered or time-of-use pricing. In a deregulated market you may also have chosen a retail supplier whose rate differs from the utility default.

The calculators use the published state average, which is the right basis for comparing appliances against each other. For a figure that matches your own bill, take the "price to compare" line and use it as your rate.